Imperial Spice Restaurant and Bar — Restaurant in Tracy

Food here is undeniably better and more authentic than any other Indian place in town, and including out of town places it’s by far the best I have ever had. Staff in the front of house aren’t quite familiar with the menu yet but they are super friendly and eager to learn. Cannot stress enough how incredible the food was, owner and chef came out to greet us and ask for our thoughts, all very kind people. It’s all plated beautifully which is not something we see in Tracy often (if at all) for ANY kind of restaurant so that was a very nice surprise. Menu is extensive, the mango lassi was delicious with notes of rose and almond, we got the beet and apple salad (pictured)which we absolutely loved and have been craving ever since, the mixed vegetable pakora was savory and perfectly crispy, we got another appetizer we forgot to take a photo of but that was really good as well. The naan is thin and bubbles up gorgeously from the heat and stays that way served. Saffron rice was good but the real kicker was the butter chicken and chicken tikka masala actually tasted different from one another (unlike other restaurants), and had such amazing depth with chicken that melts in your mouth and doesn’t have the weird rubbery microwave texture that has unfortunately become the norm. I will say the mild was still a bit too spicy so keep that in mind, but I can’t picture any logical reason I would ever go to another place for Indian food ever again despite the heat. I’m very happy we live close by. We will be regulars here and our guests we invited to try the place out with us said the same! This restaurant is putting so much care into what they are doing and you can taste it. Everything about this was a pleasant surprise and I wish them so...

It appears that both the management and the chef have changed since that previous awesome dinner. To give benefit of doubt I went and tried them again total of four times. The food is nice. Nothing to rave about. Good for a change. The service though is extremely slow. And most times they seem short staffed . Food takes forever to arrive

2023/2024 Review=== This was a great find for us. Thank you for a great experience . We will definitely be a repeat customer and are happy to refer to this place to others . We ordered Dahi Puri Corn Tikki Palak Chat Aloo Gavar Bean Bhujia Kadhai Paneer Daal Makhani Butter Naan Garlic Naan Saffron Rice Falooda

Everything was good . The Dahi in Dahi Puri had a slight essence in it and was sweet. It was different from what we expected but was good nevertheless. We were apprehensive about the Corn Tikki as it mentioned vanilla yogurt in the menu but the item was really good. The staff was supremely confident about this item and even said they will take it back if we did not like it. ‘Alu Gavar Bean sabzi’ was the surprise winner. It is one brave thing to have ‘Gavaar’ on the menu and it is another to pull off such a wonderful preparation . If you can get a college junior to have Gavaar Subzi you have a winner in your hands. Kudos. They even custom made it for us without adding chilli powder and the taste was intact. Dal Makhani and Kadhai Paneer were ordered medium spicy and they were perfect. You could actually taste the flavor of real saffron ( and see strands) in the saffron rice . It was cooked very well . We finished the meal with Falooda. Staff members were very courteous and made sure we got what we wanted and that we were satisfied....

Upd Fall '25: Lunch buffet: Fish pakora good texture & moist fish, but way too salty. Chicken65 - ok little overcooked and cold. Goat curry still more bones than meat. vegetable pakora cold tasted like a powdered spice on it. Previous: Punjabi chicken curry: boneless, good flavor, could be little spicier. Favorite thing they offered. Aloo Gobi Chana had great flavor. At least this time they had a rice dish. (Sadly not chicken biryani) The garlic naan was great. My vegetarian friend enjoyed the lentils, Palak Paneer, and vegetable pakora.

Service still let dirty plates stack up on table, and water with no ice. Still have signage issues: goat curry Punjabi, mixed veg lentils, masala Chana Palak Paneer, Dal ? Paneer Pakora Curry. April 2025: Chicken pakora good. Goat curry ok, still a lot bones. Some other things were good, not sure what they were because signs were in the wrong places. Couple of paneer"ish" dishes. Service mixed. They kept asking if we wanted more bread, but let dirty plates stack up on table. Served water, but no ice. Oddly no rice in buffet. They brought out small dishes to table to share. Disappointed in lack of spicy meat dishes.

The floor is over crowded now, with little room between tables and booths. Definitely not handicap friendly inside, and probably not fire code compliant ‐----- Buffet was good. Not usually a fan of mutton, but the mutton korma and mutton biryani were pretty good, but eat slowly lots of bones. One of favorite things was the cabbage & peas. Butter chicken good flavor and not overly rich. After tax & tip $24. Went again recently to the buffet. Too many vegetarian dishes. Of the 4 meat dishes 2 of them were cream-based and one fried so...